Rolling hay for someone else.

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Is there any way you can put her in the seat? Maybe ride along for a pass or two. Maybe you make the first pass or two like you would a kid. She won't learn how to do it by watching you anyway.
 
Jogeephus":2is8nwvs said:
Craig Miller":2is8nwvs said:
Must be a different bunch of Miller's then

:lol2: :lol2:

I don't like borrowing and I don't like loaning. I used to load things more readily but a few years ago I loaned a tractor to someone and he put another guy on it and that fella broke the tractor in half! This brings up a major pet peeve of mine which is if I loan YOU something I think the least you can do is operate it yourself rather than putting some minion on it. This is similar to fishing rights or hunting rights. If I give YOU permission my permission doesn't extend to all your friends and relatives. I don't think I'm asking to much when I expect this to be implied but apparently I am.

That reminds me about 20 years ago my neighbor sent his 12 year old son up to borrow my tractor and haybine. I told the boy I don't like to lend out my stuff but I would mow it for them. I asked how many acres of hay it was. He said, "It's not hay, it's mostly brush." Needless to say you see why I don't let my stuff out. ;-)
 
:lol: :lol: Yep, some people think there is no need to tear their stuff up when they can always use their neighbors.

Another thing I've learned is when someone offers you free hay to cut its free for a reason no matter how clean they claim the ground to be. The astute will walk the field over before bringing equipment to the field. I on the other hand am slow and only learned this only after I bringing the equipment to the field and thought it might be wise to do a walkover before mowing. Turns out the last time it was mowed it was done with a Brown Tree Cutter and the metal and concrete didn't hurt it a bit.
 
I hate borrowing anything. If I tear it up, I have to spend the $$$ and time to fix it or have it fixed (or replaced) and I'm out the $$$ and still don't have whatever it was I borrowed.
 
greybeard":36qdhmc0 said:
I hate borrowing anything. If I tear it up, I have to spend the $$$ and time to fix it or have it fixed (or replaced) and I'm out the $$$ and still don't have whatever it was I borrowed.

You could be like my neighbors. One neighbor borrowed a round baler from the other. The neighbor that borrowed the baler somehow managed to get a telephone pole jammed inside it. How the hell you can mow, rake and bale a telephone pole is beyond me. Damage to the baler was over $8000.00. Don't know who paid what but for some reason they don't talk anymore.
 
With the situation you described I'd only touch the deal using all my own equipment. And in my part of the country the custom operators do it for 6 or 7 bales out of 10 (except for years when we get a lot of rain, when they won't do it for 10 of 10).
 
We get 75% 3 out of 4 if we do all the work with all our equipment. Don't loan or borrow equipment from anyone except 2 very good friends that we do stuff back and forth all the time....both experienced and equipment savvy.
If they mow it, then we rake and bale it's 50/50. If they want all the hay and we do all the work it is $25 per roll left in the field. If we bale only then it is $10 to 15 per bale. We don't use any of the customers equipment as a rule. Did use the rake of one, and bent a wheel on it and replaced it, kept the bent one for parts for our rake. All fuel and string is our cost.
We also insist the owner rides the field and shows us the rocks, or we make arrangements early in the year where we can see the field before it grows up.
Mostly now we only make hay on places that we get to keep all the hay, mostly places that have "farmettes" and want the tax breaks but no animals. Have people asking all the time for us to please come cut their places for the hay, and many we turn down due to the roughness. Will do custom bushhogging, and that varies but usually 75-100 hr.
 
I've always lived by the words that my father taught me years ago and that is to help your neighbor when you can. When I started in farming, I didn't have everything that I needed. I have had the pleasure of neighbors helping me for no charge. Now that I've accumulated the equipment that I now need, I pass this same service along to others when needed. It's funny how when I help others and don't charge, I will somehow always have something come my way to offset any expense I incurred. I've passed this along to my sons too and they are seeing the benefits of helping your neighbor.
 
kilroy60":1j3bslze said:
I've always lived by the words that my father taught me years ago and that is to help your neighbor when you can. When I started in farming, I didn't have everything that I needed. I have had the pleasure of neighbors helping me for no charge. Now that I've accumulated the equipment that I now need, I pass this same service along to others when needed. It's funny how when I help others and don't charge, I will somehow always have something come my way to offset any expense I incurred. I've passed this along to my sons too and they are seeing the benefits of helping your neighbor.
Excellent point. It's called Karma. I believe it in whole heartedly
 
dun":3qje7ikp said:
kilroy60":3qje7ikp said:
I've always lived by the words that my father taught me years ago and that is to help your neighbor when you can. When I started in farming, I didn't have everything that I needed. I have had the pleasure of neighbors helping me for no charge. Now that I've accumulated the equipment that I now need, I pass this same service along to others when needed. It's funny how when I help others and don't charge, I will somehow always have something come my way to offset any expense I incurred. I've passed this along to my sons too and they are seeing the benefits of helping your neighbor.
Excellent point. It's called Karma. I believe it in whole heartedly


I'm right there with you both. We reached an agreement. I stated i would help him out. Their green machine is getting yet another clutch. He offered me half the hay. Use his disc mower. His rake. My tractor and my baler. And he told me i could use his mower on our fields. Unsure if I will use it on mine. Who knows.

Also in this deal i get to cut a field up the road and get half. So maybe all the paying it forward i've done is coming back around. Truly is going to save our butts.
 
Our baler is a soft core baler. Do any of you use them? I've been trying to get tighter bales. This past cutting, i rolled them until the tractor starting pulling down. Which seemed to give me a tighter roll. Is this the right way to go about it? It is manual. The automatic feature doesn't work correctly.
 
ClinchValley":857yp1ee said:
Our baler is a soft core baler. Do any of you use them? I've been trying to get tighter bales. This past cutting, i rolled them until the tractor starting pulling down. Which seemed to give me a tighter roll. Is this the right way to go about it? It is manual. The automatic feature doesn't work correctly.
I have an M&W chain baler which is a soft core baler, And that is what I do. I start bailing and watch my tachometer, when it bogs down about 75 to a 100 rpms I tie it and dump the bale. If you don't [ as you know] your bales are loose and don't stack worth a darn.
 
Txpiney":1peiu0id said:
ClinchValley":1peiu0id said:
Our baler is a soft core baler. Do any of you use them? I've been trying to get tighter bales. This past cutting, i rolled them until the tractor starting pulling down. Which seemed to give me a tighter roll. Is this the right way to go about it? It is manual. The automatic feature doesn't work correctly.
I have an M&W chain baler which is a soft core baler, And that is what I do. I start bailing and watch my tachometer, when it bogs down about 75 to a 100 rpms I tie it and dump the bale. If you don't [ as you know] your bales are loose and don't stack worth a darn.
:shock: :shock: :shock: some how that just doesn't sound good for the baler....
 
Txpiney":1ytxpuv6 said:
ClinchValley":1ytxpuv6 said:
Our baler is a soft core baler. Do any of you use them? I've been trying to get tighter bales. This past cutting, i rolled them until the tractor starting pulling down. Which seemed to give me a tighter roll. Is this the right way to go about it? It is manual. The automatic feature doesn't work correctly.
I have an M&W chain baler which is a soft core baler, And that is what I do. I start bailing and watch my tachometer, when it bogs down about 75 to a 100 rpms I tie it and dump the bale. If you don't [ as you know] your bales are loose and don't stack worth a darn.
I have an M&W baler that is 20 years old and still doing a good job. But to the question if my monitor is not working properly as sometimes happens with 20 year old equipment, I have rolled enough hay that I can tell by the way the tractor is pulling how much hay is in the bale, so yes if you have enough experience with the baler you can go by that. On a side note one of my lights does not come on when the bale is full and I can not figure it out why, do y'all have any ideas. I have checked the calibration several times and it always checks that it should be working properly and come on when the other light does. Any help would be appreciated.
 
kd4au":1fg2dpp8 said:
Txpiney":1fg2dpp8 said:
ClinchValley":1fg2dpp8 said:
Our baler is a soft core baler. Do any of you use them? I've been trying to get tighter bales. This past cutting, i rolled them until the tractor starting pulling down. Which seemed to give me a tighter roll. Is this the right way to go about it? It is manual. The automatic feature doesn't work correctly.
I have an M&W chain baler which is a soft core baler, And that is what I do. I start bailing and watch my tachometer, when it bogs down
about 75 to a 100 rpms I tie it and dump the bale. If you don't [ as you know] your bales are loose and don't stack worth a darn.
I have an M&W baler that is 20 years old and still doing a good job. But to the question if my monitor is not working properly as sometimes happens with 20 year old equipment, I have rolled enough hay that I can tell by the way the tractor is pulling how much hay is in the bale, so yes if you have enough experience with the baler you can go by that. On a side note one of my lights does not come on when the bale is full and I can not figure it out why, do y'all have any ideas. I have checked the calibration several times and it always checks that it should be working properly and come on when the other light does. Any help would be appreciated.

My baler has 2 micro switches located on the baler where the door latches latch onto the chamber. They are adjustable, when the bale forms it pushes the door back and the micro switch activates the light. If only the left side light is on, then you need more hay on the right side or vice versa.
 
Txpiney":aqdvd9ay said:
kd4au":aqdvd9ay said:
Txpiney":aqdvd9ay said:
I have an M&W chain baler which is a soft core baler, And that is what I do. I start bailing and watch my tachometer, when it bogs down
about 75 to a 100 rpms I tie it and dump the bale. If you don't [ as you know] your bales are loose and don't stack worth a darn.
I have an M&W baler that is 20 years old and still doing a good job. But to the question if my monitor is not working properly as sometimes happens with 20 year old equipment, I have rolled enough hay that I can tell by the way the tractor is pulling how much hay is in the bale, so yes if you have enough experience with the baler you can go by that. On a side note one of my lights does not come on when the bale is full and I can not figure it out why, do y'all have any ideas. I have checked the calibration several times and it always checks that it should be working properly and come on when the other light does. Any help would be appreciated.

My baler has 2 micro switches located on the baler where the door latches latch onto the chamber. They are adjustable, when the bale forms it pushes the door back and the micro switch activates the light. If only the left side light is on, then you need more hay on the right side or vice versa.
I have put so much hay in the side that the light want come on that it is a foot taller than the side the light does work. I baled 117 roles today with it so I can still put up a good bale, but mostly because I've used it so many years. I'll figure it out one day. Thanks for replying.
 

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